Meso- and macroporous compositions of different materials have found great utility as catalysts and sorption media because of their large internal surface area (Kresge, C. T., Leonowicz, M. E., et al., 1992, Nature, vol. 359, p. 710).
For example macroporous materials with pore diameters comparable to optical wavelengths are predicted to have unique and highly useful optical properties such as photonic bandgaps and optical stop-bands. Control over the pore size distribution can lead to improved macroporous materials for applications as catalytic surfaces and supports, adsorbents, chromatographic materials, filters, light-weight structural materials, and thermal acoustic and electrical insulators (Imhof, A., Pine, D. J., 1997, Nature, vol. 389, p. 948).
Do to their versatile applicability a high demand exists for further porous materials having some or all of the above described features.